Balenciaga aren’t strangers to the world of gaming. Back in 2021, they brought out an online game called Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow that saw people traveling around different settings and meeting NPCs who were wearing clothes from their Fall collection. Still, they’ve never actually entered into the world of console creation before, until now.
To celebrate the Chinese New Year and the arrival of the Year of the Wood Snake, the fashion giants have gifted some of their most important clients (‘or VICs if you’re in the world of high fashion, which me and my Vinted jumper definitely don’t fit into) a handheld game console that looks like an Analogue Pocket made for an alien.
As you might have guessed with all the emphasis on ‘the Year of the Snake’, this game plays one game and one game only – the classic Snake game that we spent ages playing on our Nokia phones back in the day and which has recently made a resurgence on Nothing phones. The handheld has the Balenciaga logo on the front and boasts an LCD screen with a soft blue backlit screen and four face buttons for directions. It’s incredibly minimal and, as it’s currently aimed towards people who spend a lot of money with Balenciaga, it probably won’t make it into the hands of many gamers unless they are put straight on eBay… and that’s when the real fun will begin.
This handheld could come into its own if people in the modding community got hold of it and managed to adapt it. I could definitely see people playing the Upper-Class DOOM cheese and wine hack on this thing, and with a little modification, it could be great for playing point-and-click games like Monkey Island and early Game Boy games like Super Mario Land & Donkey Kong Land.
Obviously, this is a marketing ploy for Balenciaga to capitalise on the sense of Nintendo fever that’s gripping the world with the announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2. They haven’t made this with gamers in mind and it’s essentially a fashion accessory. Yet despite all that, I’d still like to have a go on it and add a couple of extra buttons into the mix. You can actually be in for a chance of winning a Balenciaga limited-edition handheld and other gifts like keychains by topping the leaderboards in Balenciaga’s online Snake competition, so if you do want to check it out in the flesh, then go and flex your Snake skills!
